Hurricanes win first game of season

CALGARY -- Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist, and Eddie Lack made 24 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.
Teuvo Teravainen, Victor Rask and Viktor Stalberg also scored in the Hurricanes' first victory of the season and first win at Calgary in eight games dating to Dec. 12, 2002.

"It feels good," Lack said. "Today, I felt a different mentality. I felt we stuck to it and no one panicked or anything. We were poised on the bench and on the ice. It was just calm, cool and collected."
Troy Brouwer and Johnny Gaudreau scored, and Brian Elliott made 28 saves for the Flames, who have one win in their first five games.

"The easy thing is to get frustrated and to put your head down and hang your head a little bit," said Elliott, who is 0-3-0 with a 4.72 goals-against average and .839 save percentage. "What got us all here to this league is perseverance … that relentless attitude of no matter what happens, we get it done. We keep that going, a good attitude, and we'll be OK."
The Hurricanes, who have lost twice in overtime this season after giving up a three-goal lead, rushed to a 3-0 advantage.
Teravainen scored on his own rebound 7:55 into the game, and Rask shot through a screen past Elliott's glove to double the lead at 16:12. Stalberg scored the game-winner -- his first goal of the season -- on a breakaway at 4:55 of the second.
The Hurricanes were ahead 4-1 before losing 5-4 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 13 and up 3-0 before losing 4-3 in overtime at the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
This time, they held off Calgary's comeback.
Brouwer scored with 1:53 remaining in the second to cut Carolina's lead to two, and Gaudreau scored at 8:57 of the third with his first goal of the season. But Skinner scored on a 5-on-3 power play with 33.9 seconds remaining.
"I think it's just part of the process of learning how to win and close out games," Skinner said. "We just had to keep our composure and stay tough mentally. We had some big plays by some guys in key moments. We were able to keep that composure and get the job done. It's a good feeling."

Goal of the game

Brouwer stole the puck from Justin Faulk in the neutral zone before going in on Lack and snapping a shot to the short side off the post and in at 18:07 of the second period to cut Carolina's lead to 3-1.

Save of the game

Lack made a pad save on Matt Stajan's breakaway and swatted the rebound out of the crease with 4:11 remaining in the second period with Carolina up 3-0.

Unsung moment of the game

Hurricanes forward Phillip Di Giuseppe lifted the stick of Calgary center Sean Monahan at 12:21 of the second period to prevent Monahan from spinning and shooting into an empty net with Lack down.

Highlight of the game

Stalberg made it 3-0, getting behind Flames defensemen Jyrki Jokipakka and Dougie Hamilton before taking a breakaway pass from Klas Dahlbeck and beating Elliott with a backhand.

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They said it

"Eddie made some key stops at some big times. I thought the PK was huge for us, especially our early kill after a bunch of penalties. The power play did a good job of capitalizing on some opportunities we got. I think we're rolling four lines through the end of the game. It feels good when everyone can contribute like that." -- Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner
"Really frustrating, but you have to use that as motivation out there and you can't let it affect our game. Emotion is not a bad thing sometimes, we just have to use it in a positive way and get through this." -- Flames defenseman Mark Giordano
"Probably more poised and confident in each other and in the system. I thought guys did a real good job being poised. We probably didn't need to give up the second one coming off a power play and an icing. I think we can execute better there and it's a 3-1 game." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Need to know

The Flames went 0-for-6 with the man-advantage and are 1-for-22 this season. They haven't scored in their last 19 power plays. The Hurricanes went 2-for-8 on the power play and are fifth in the NHL at 31.3 percent. … Rask played his junior hockey with Calgary of the Western Hockey League. … Hurricanes defenseman Jakub Nakladal, who played 27 games with the Flames last season, was a healthy scratch. ... Calgary defenseman Dennis Wideman was a healthy scratch for a third straight game.

What's next

Hurricanes: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-PH, FS-CR, NHL.TV).
Flames: Home against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; SN360, SN1, FS-MW, NHL.TV).